Batting for creating a skilled workforce, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, has sounded the need for “makers in India” to take the country forward. Addressing the All India Management Association’s 43rd National Management Convention, Rudy said, “Everyone is talking about Make in India. Make in India cannot happen unless you have makers in India”.
The Minister pointed out that skill is like education but it had not been included in the education system. He claimed that plans were underway to include skilling in schooling. “Twelve years of school education is very important but it may not make you employable. However, ten or fifteen weeks of training can make you employable”, he added.
The fact that a large number of engineering graduates are not even drawing a salary of Rs 10,000 was indicative of how things have gone wrong, the Minister added. Taking on his detractors, Rudy mentioned that the job of his Ministry was unlike constructing roads which was based largely on fixing parameters and hiring able contractors.
“My job is to invest in human beings and investment in human beings does not pay in a year or two. It takes decades”, he said. But the Lok Sabha Member from Saran stated that his Ministry had come a long way since its inception.
“The day I started, the Ministry did not have a budget, office or officers. Today, after one and a half years, the Prime Minister has committed to the cabinet an amount of Rs 32,000 crore for the Ministry of Skill Development”, he asserted.
He appealed to the industry to come forward so as to ensure the effective utilisation of the money. “The professional knowledge for all the activities for skilling is not with the Ministry of Skill Development. It is with the industry”, he noted.
On a lighter note, the Minister joked that he wished to see matrimonial advertisements in newspapers based on skills. “I need a bridegroom or a bride who is a master chef or a master plumber”, he said as listeners burst into thunderous applause.
Source: exchange4media
